Environment Minister Terry Lake said an early regulatory hearing into the rates Kinder Morgan will charge users of its twinned pipeline may be an opportunity for B.C. to pursue the idea of an added surcharge.

B.C. eyes surcharge on flow of Kinder Morgan oil

Province may participate in early NEB hearings on rates for twinned pipeline

Environment Minister Terry Lake says B.C. may pursue the idea of a per barrel levy on oil that would flow through a twinned Kinder Morgan pipeline at upcoming regulatory hearings into the project’s business terms.

He said money raised from a levy on the oil could fund a much-enhanced oil spill prevention and response system.

“I’ve asked staff in our ministry and in energy to take a look at this,” Lake said in an interview. “We want to make sure if there’s a role for us, we look at that. We haven’t landed on that decision yet.”

Those National Energy Board hearings into Kinder Morgan’s proposed rate structure with its customers would happen relatively soon – perhaps starting early next year – and are different from separate hearings on the actual pipeline twinning project, which are at least two years away following a formal application.

Federal NDP MPs last month said they will intervene in the upcoming hearings and raised the idea of asking the NEB to add a surcharge to the rates oil shippers pay Kinder Morgan to generate emergency response funds or perhaps to raise money to benefit First Nations.

Lake noted Washington State already has a levy for emergency response, collected on each barrel Kinder Morgan ships through a spur pipeline from Abbotsford to U.S. refineries.

He stressed the concept of a safety fund is separate from the idea of a legacy fund that brings B.C. more of the benefits that accrue from allowing the export of heavy oil through the province.

Premier Christy Clark has said benefits sharing with B.C. is one of five preconditions for the province to consider any new heavy oil pipeline – either Enbridge’s Northern Gateway line or Kinder Morgan’s twinning.